Shareholders Agreement: majority/minority shareholders

Shareholders Agreement between majority (more than 50% of shares held) and minority (less than 50% of shares held) in a private limited company, with control provisions for the majority shareholder and minority shareholder protections for the minority shareholder.

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When do I use this document?

  • for a company which has a majority shareholder and one or more minority shareholders
  • for provisions enabling the majority shareholder to control decision-making and other matters
  • for minority shareholder protections, including director appointment rights and rights to approve reserved matters
  • for a private limited company incorporated in England and Wales

What are the key features?

  • full form shareholders agreement
  • 30 clauses and 3 schedules over 31 pages
  • clauses relating to the following matters:
    • business of the company
    • shareholder roles and services
    • shareholdings
    • funding
    • director appointment rights and board decision-making
    • shareholder decision-making
    • dividends
    • matters requiring prior approval of specified shareholders (reserved matters)
    • future share issues
    • transfers of shares, including permitted transfers, pre-emption rights, compulsory transfer events, drag-along rights and tag-along rights
    • shareholder information rights
    • shareholder restrictive covenants
    • duration and termination

What other documents are available?

For a Shareholders Agreement for a company with equal 50/50 shareholdings, see

When do I use this document?

  • for a share sale transaction
  • where confidential information about the target company will be disclosed to a potential buyer
  • for a longer form NDA with strong legal protections for the seller and target company

What are the key features?

  • 17 clauses over 9 pages
  • definitions of Confidential Information and Proposed Transaction
  • confidentiality obligations
  • authorised recipients of Confidential Information 
  • circumstances permitting compulsory disclosure 
  • procedure for returning Confidential Information to the seller 
  • prohibition on the buyer poaching the target company’s employees
  • contractual remedies for breach of the NDA, including contractual indemnity in favour of the seller and target company
  • duration of agreement

What else do I need to know?

It’s quite common that some clauses of an NDA may be resisted by the receiving party. The guidance notes which accompany this document explain how provisions, such as the following, might be negotiated to reach mutual agreement.

    • non-solicitation covenants
    • a contractual indemnity for breach of the confidentiality obligations
    • the duration of the agreement

The guidance notes which accompany the document explain how these provisions might be negotiated to reach agreement.

What other docs are available?

For a shorter form of confidentiality agreement for a company sale transaction, see

Explanatory Guides

As with all of our document templates, your purchase will include access to clear explanatory guidance on the document and its use.

Updated by a lawyer on 21/07/2025

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